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Tuesday, December 4, 2012

A taste of Europe

While I was visiting with sweet Lara of Declaration last week, she mentioned a new macaron shop that had opened up in the historic district in St. Augustine. What could be more perfect? The world could use more macaron shops if you ask me...well at least this part of the world. Why should the good people of Europe have all the fun? Also, this is a good time to point out one of the absolute best ways to find a new favorite shop...ask the owner of a shop you already love. You see, good shop owners want to support each other and they will make sure that you skip out on the commercially touristy stuff and head straight for the best places! It was a beautiful day in St. Augustine, both kiddos were in school and I didn't have a photo session for a few hours...so of course I headed downtown!

**Insider info alert...the best parking for the historic area is at the intersection of Hypolita St. and Spanish St. It is a pay-the-meter parking lot (which you can pay up to 4 hours with a cc) and it puts you right in the middle of all of the historic district, which means...less walking!

I got side tracked walking down Hypolita street because right on the corner is my favorite restaurant, Rhett's.

It was closed, as it's only open for dinner, but it brought back some
happy memories. My hubby and I went there this past March celebrating
our 14th wedding anniversary (pics from March)

The menu's light up...apparently this is a new trend but it was the first time I had ever seen this and I was thoroughly impressed. There was an awesome jazz singer/piano guy who kept the mood light and of course then there was the food...the glorious food... (sorry, dark iphone pics distort the colors)

OK, back to my mission to find the new macaron shop. About a 1/2 block down from Rhett's I noticed a sign hanging from a beautiful pink building that caught my eye...ummmm, hello??? A crepe shop too???

Seriously people, I had to stop and taste test one of these things (in the name of good blogging)! They had a full food menu but I was only there for the sweet stuff. Since this was my first order, I went with the no-brainer, banana & nutella.

I always love it when you can watch someone making your food...no freezer crepes here :)

There is an inside to this restaurant but another wonderful surprise to this little place was the outdoor patio, which you can't see from the road.

As if I need to answer this question but yes, it was delicious. It was so big, I couldn't finish it..it was really perfect for 2 people so I took the rest home as a surprise to my Bella-boo.

Once again...back to the mission. Still on Hypolita Street, just passed The Columbia restaurant (yet another brilliant restaurant) and across from the owners first shop, the Hyppo, gourmet Popsicles (review on this one coming in a few weeks when I promised to take my kiddos to try as many flavors as we can) sits Bon Ami Confections. Jackpot.

Look at those colors!!! & I'm a sucker for cute packaging....

I decided to take these babies home to share with the kiddos. We like to take a bite, pass it and then all say our favorite flavors. Out of the 7 we tried, we each had a different favorite. Bella's was the dark chocolate, mine was the coconut and Preston's was the peanut butter...sorry to say but Lulu's still has the best lemon (see those here.)

Of course, Finn, my cat, who totally believes he is french, liked them all.

So I have decided after 30+ years of visiting St. Augustine for it's historical significance, it is worth re-visiting every few months to discover these new and exciting little surprises. The kids are out of school in a few weeks for Christmas break so we are going to hit up as many other sweet spots there we can find!

2 comments:

Wendy, Thanks so much for this post! My family and I had the best day in St. Augustine trying those crepes and macarons. We have been up and down that street many times and never even noticed these sweet little shops. It definitely was a lovely day.